Warsaw School of Economics - reunion

When thinking up address of the blog over seventeen years ago, I deliberately chose to name it and nickname myself "student SGH". Back at that time being half-way into university education at the most prestigious academy of economics in Poland at that time was a part of my identity. 

Despite the above, I did not want that chapter to last long. I pressed ahead to graduate possible quickly and swap university halls for corporate open spaces. I have never had nature of a scholar (though in early days of the blog I wrote much about economics and the likes) and 15 years into the corporate world I consider myself a practitioner, having little fondness nor sentiment for university education, especially since nearly two decades ago universities used to be a backwater.

Over 15 years since the end of my formal education (counting out the CFA programme) a few reunions were held, but until last Saturday, I did not attend any, including the celebration of 120 years of my high school (liceum) in October 2025. This time my SGH schoolmate, Ola, prompted me to sign up and take part in SGH graduates' reunion.

While turning up at the scene, I learnt 450 attendees had been registered, with a minor fraction of them not showing up. This meant on average 10 graduates from each year were present, accounting for far less than 1% of all alumni. The news of the reunion had not been widespread, the early-summer timing not most suitable and the cost, especially in terms of value for money could have been prohibitive.

The official opening lasted two hours, was relatively enjoyable, yet not memorable. It was followed by a lunch and unofficial networking time with attendees roaming around the campus or sitting in circles to chat with one another. Since a long time I had not talked to so many strangers over one day. Oddly enough, many casual conversations were more than small talks, but none of them has not been converted into any connection going beyond the reunion timeframe.

As of today I cannot assert if I would take part in such reunion again, but since the next is due in 10 years, I can be holding back on this decision.

Weather note: the most intense heatwave in history is haunting Poland and many other CEE countries this weekend. I am in course of compiling a heatwave summary for posterity, due to be published here next Sunday. Take care of yourselves and don't shrug off the peril!

A year after the transition

There are moments when it never hurts to look back on one’s old thoughts and review their accuracy with hindsight. A year ago I, a half-baked graduate, just in the eve of starting my first permanent job, set out to summarise ups and downs of leaving university and stepping into the corporate world. Time to quote my thoughts from February 2011 and confront them with my views today.

I WILL MISS:

1. Day-to-day contact with peers. Truth be told my colleagues will be a bit or much older than me. From my past experience I know I can get along with older colleagues very well, but they are a sort of a different breed, they have different problems, pastime activities, interests, priorities in life, usually they have a different point of view because they have their own families and obligations it entails.

I somehow miss it less than I expected. I’ve always found it easy to get along with older people and so I do at work, but there’s a noticeable gap between us – most of them have spouses and children, hence have different duties and problems. I haven’t experienced their daily bread, they long for carefree period of youth in which I, in their opinion, still am.

2. Clever, awe-inspiring lecturers, just to name a few:
dr Bogusław Czarny, who taught me basic micro- and macroeconomics, inspired to think independently, form my own opinions and who stressed the importance of the overriding rule in economics, that an assertion is true when it cannot be disproved, not when it can be proved,
prof. Marek Garbicz, for his breathtaking lectures, sense of humour and open mind,
prof. Maria Podgórska, for her patience, consistency and the fact she did not confine just to teach econometrics and mathematics in finance and insurance, but also wanted to instil in us integrity and made us aware how important in life it was,
mgr Sławomira Rajkowska, my best German teacher ever, unfortunately she stood in for our lecturer just for one term, but the progress I made (without much effort) was unbelievable. Had my Deutsch been that good today...
mgr Aneta Piwko, my best English teacher ever. If all teachers had such excellent command of English, passion and drive to teach, Germans would not stack up against Poles in terms of English skills.
prof. Sławiński... Here words are very unnecessary. Who experienced the pleasure of attending his lectures knows what I mean. The rest may only regret.
dr Piotr Mielus, the supervisor of my MA thesis and an outstanding practitioner.

True, but on the other hand, I met several awe-inspiring people where I work, and, like at SGH, many mediocre individuals (who are in a minority). I should kick myself for not attending open lectures at my school, or not visiting some of my favourite scholars during their office hours. Yet still there time to make up…

3. Casual clothes. From next week will fit for weekends, holidays and cult dress-down Fridays. I actually like formal outfits so this one should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Well, I’m still at the age, when I don’t mind wearing a suit and tie (business casual dress code Mon – Thu), but dress code policy is much more flexible than I expected – if I don’t have any important meeting there’s no reason why I couldn’t wear jeans, casual shirt, or a jumper if I feel like.

4. Commuting in non-peak hours. Lovely it was to get from or to Warsaw within fifty minutes in the middle of the day or in the evening when streets were already unclogged. My new recipe for avoiding traffic jams will be trains, so the journey between home and the office should take around an hour.

In July I swapped trains for a car, since then I’ve used public transport within the boundaries of Warsaw only (P&R to work and back + getting about town). I depart for work in early rush hours when traffic is snarled-up, but not stationary. I return to P&R in late rush-hours or after it. Carrying one’s arse in a vehicle is convenient, but expensive…

5. Job fairs, event, meeting famous people who visited SGH and other events. First two and a half years abounded in such events. Later the crisis came, companies cut their promotion budgets and I ran out of disposable pens.

At work there are different events during which I can pick up other gadgets. And I slightly miss these small talks with representatives of employers on potential internships. These days internships are beyond the scope of my career interests and provided no big wipe-out (i.e. lay-offs) strikes out of the blue, I should hold down the job.

6. Privileges. Not that soon. I will pick up my diploma some three months after the final MA exam, so I until then will I make the most of my ticket concession and other measurable benefits of being a student. The new world will compensate me for this by giving perks.

I lost my privileges on the last day of June 2011. From then I’ve had to pay the full fare for my travelcard, but on the other hard I have a health-care package, swimming pool entry card and reimbursement of glasses expenses.

7. Unfettered speculation on stock exchange. From now I will not be able to do a real-time trading plus I will have several trading restrictions. This does not mean I will pull back from the stock market at all; the speculator will become a mid-term investor.

I have to keep away from some stocks and I’m obliged to submit weekly report on my trading activity. These days all those limitations don’t hurt me at all, I don’t understand where and why markets are heading, so I trade very cautiously, or not trade at all.

I WILL NOT MISS:

1. The overwhelming mess, bad communication between authorities and students and general disinformation.

Replace “authorities” with “superiors” and “students” with “subordinates”, and the sentence stays true!

2. Ignorance and laziness of lecturers. I do not even wish to comment. The list of admired lecturers was short. The list of big let-downs from the whole course of my studies would be much longer...

The problem of ignorance is far less appalling, actually people there are well-educated and reservations concerning their expertise are rather sparse. Plus they are ready to lend a helping hand and share their experience, if I’m in need.

3. Workings of the student office (dziekanat), its surly personnel, quaint decisions (deleting completed courses from track record of studies, informing me about my Bachelor's exam the day before in the evening)...

Thank God I’ve finished school! But a private corporation with head office in the fatherland of capitalism has its own set of absurdities, equally enervating.

4. To boot bad organisation, doing everything at eleventh hour...

This has not sunk into oblivion, just manifests itself in a different way. Closing deal at eleventh hour is not infrequent, being assigned tasks with tight deadlines is not uncommon, but it’s typical for the corporate world and at least if the job is done correctly, it’s appreciated.

5. Appalling use of English, which was ridiculed on this blog repeatedly.

At the bank virtually everyone uses English and everyone does it as good as they can, still too often with putting too little emphasis on quality. People from London or from the US have got accustomed to us mangling English. I’ve been reproved a few times for using too difficult (for native speakers) vocabulary, but no one’s ever told me off for polishing up a piece written in not-up-to-the-standard English.

6. Broken down central heating when outside it was -15C or unopenable windows and lack of curtains or blinds when outside temperature hit +30C

It’s been kind of dreadfully cold over the last week and temperature in my office was around +19C, barely above the threshold of +18C, allowing employees to refuse to work. But aircon was doing well in summer.

7. Lectures at 19:00 for day-time students (prevalent, alas).

There were a few incidences of working later than until 7 p.m. over that year, with record-late knock-off at quarter to nine in the evening, but if you think anyone at the top cares that it’s after 5 p.m. and it should be your private time, you’re wrong.

Immersing in the corporate world will not only mean I will be self-supporting, but also will bring new challenges and real learning opportunities. In the coming months I expect to work harder and learn more than within four and a half years of my studies.

Here I wasn’t wrong.

Hitherto I have not observed any symptoms of depresja magisterska, (graduates afflicted with this malady are down in the dumps because the carefree period of studies is drawing to a close and they are in for forty years of work), but the worst might be still to come.

There have been ups and downs over that year, but all in all I don’t miss school. Somewhere deep down I feel the clock is ticking, years are passing by (about to turn 25 in ten months) and self-fulfilment should lie above all outside work, if for somebody it also lies within it, they must be very happy.

Earnings

On Wednesday my manager, while doing a research in the Internet (managers don’t surf the web at work, they are always focused on their duties) ran across an article from Warsaw pages of Gazeta Wyborcza about wages of SGH graduates… An interesting piece, particularly if you bear in mind how opaque the Polish labour market is...

The very title, literally “Graduates of Warsaw School of Economics, [earn] even eight thousand zlotys after tax, just upon graduation” would suit better a tabloid, as it includes more than a tinge of manipulation. The piece is a summary of a survey conducted among recent graduates of my university, participation to it was voluntary and answers were given totally anonymously. The sample numbered, if my memory serves me right, 837 graduates who were divided into three groups, according to period of time elapsed since their graduation, i.e. those who had graduated less than six months ago, those who had finished their studies more than a half, but less than three years ago, and those with longer post-graduation career.

The reactions the title provoked in my team, categorise it to gullet-press style. “How come?”, “How bold”, “Insolence” – my manager and head of my department, both graduates of SGH remember how much they earned as freshmen and know how high my salary is and wondered who would be eager to pay some 12,000 PLN before tax to a grown-out student. While cries of outrage died down, I induced everyone to read the article over and than return to the discussion. As it turns out, only 7.6 percent of the surveyed declared they earned more than 8,500 PLN net per month, but around 25% of the respondents asserted their monthly salary was between 2,500 and 3,500 PLN and another one-fourth said they earned from 3,500 to 4,500 PLN. No other figures were cited, so one can’t infer how numerous was the low-paid group (monthly wages below 2,500 PLN) and how many were paid between 4,500 and 7,500 PLN.

I’m leaning towards fault-finding in my attitude towards the article. The sample was rather small, bearing in mind that around 2,000 students graduate from SGH each year (I have to admit I also didn’t take the trouble to accept the invitation to fill in the questionnaire), so there were only over 60 graduates with relatively high earnings, in the group of 0.5 – 3 years after graduation (headcount of ca. 6,000). Hang on, if the survey was anonymous, everyone could write whatever they wanted and inflate their earnings, this affects reliability of such research. The puzzling thing is also that I’m a registered user of SGH career centre and I didn’t find any report on their pages. If I’m not authorised to view it, how have journalists of GW come into it? Doesn’t it cast any doubts on reliability?

There are some outstanding graduates of my school, I know some who’ve managed to climb many steps on the ladders of their careers very fast. In each population there is a fraction of very gifted people, if they are interested in economics, business, finance, etc., many of them are destined to get in to SGH, so the very group of SGH graduates does not reflect an overall situation of graduates of all universities on the Polish labour market. If we assume we agree that free market properly estimates the price that a young, outstanding employee deserves to be paid, or how much they have to be paid to fend off job offers from the competition, we shouldn’t find those earnings outrageous. Compare this to bonuses of CEOs of British banks (there’s a lot of hue and cry about this in the UK these days) and 8,500 zeds per month sound like little peanuts. And last but not least, many of those well-paid rat-racers spend more than 12 hours a day in their offices over the working week, work over weekends and grow rich quickly at the expense of their personal lives. Be aware there’s always a price to pay…

Much more uplifting is the news that some 50% of SGH graduates earn between 2,500 and 4,500 PLN and this is where I fall as well. Deep down I feel the bracket sets floor and cap for a decent salary for a graduate with considerably short experience… A proper career and earnings path should start at a rather low level and have a strong upside potential left for an employee, if they prove they deserve to move up, they should be given a pay rise.

This is what seems proper to me, but in practise appetite comes with eating. As I was about to start my current job a year ago, I thought my salary was very competitive; today I find it only very decent, but from what I discerned, where I work commitment is appreciated – so I stay patient… Plus I have to add I’m in a different situation than my peers who’ve come to Warsaw to study and settled down here for good. I don’t have to pay rent for a flat, actually my expenses are still quite low and having the luxury of owning and using a car, I can still put aside 50% - 60% of my salary. No room for discontent for sure, but well, appetite comes with eating, and the more you eat, the more bloated your belly gets…

When children grow rebellious...

Time goes by, entourages change. Gone is the period of formal education when every day I used to meet my peers who look at the world from roughly the same perspective as I do. People I am surrounded by these days, at least a few years older than me, have different problems, grew up in different times, spend their leisure time differently. What we usually have in common is a certain part of our background – we are almost all graduates of Warsaw School of Economics. And despite this we are all “normal”, I mean we do not fit the image of a stereotypical rat-racer. This is what probably marks the boundary between slightly “backward” Polish commercial banking and Anglo-Saxon overgrown financial sector which favours alpha-males with specific set of traits and predispositions…

All (except one, single girl aged 28) my colleagues have spouses and most have children. Their offspring are usually in pre-school or early-school age, only one colleague’s children are in their teenage years. He sometimes talks over his observations of his daughter (aged 16) and son (aged 14) with a woman from the other department whose son is also adolescent. While listening to their conversations, I finally realised what sort of problems I will have to tackle in several years, when my currently unborn children grow to the age of defiance. From what I observed, my colleagues strike a good balance between strictness and leniency in upbringing their children. They are aware it is natural that teenagers begin to have their own opinions, often totally opposite, as a matter of principle, to their parents’ views, want to dress the way they want, spend the time the way they want, meet with who they want and arrange their lives in their own way. They talk a lot to their children and forgive some misbehaviours (one-off occurrences of returning home inebriated or nasty behaviour at schools).

I sometimes butt in to their talks and present them my point of view, but more often they make me look back on over past ten years, from the moment I came into age of adolescence, until my 24th birthday. Much can be said about me, but I was anyone, but a problem child / problem teenager. For some reason, maybe because my parents would talk with me a lot, I did not have inclination stir up troubles. I always did good at school; in good and bad times, for 12 years of primary, middle and high school I passed with flying colours. I did not have to retake a single exam during four and a half years of my studies and unlike fellow students I finished my studies in time. There were some incidences of inappropriate behaviour at school, but they have never been really inexcusable and never sullied my good reputation. There were some disputes between my parents and I, there was a time when I was 16 and in a relationship with two years older girl, when we argued a lot. They told me she was not good for me, after a few months time and my ex-girlfriend proved them right. I have never experimented with drugs, never had a cigarette in my mouth (I owe it to my parents, until November 2003 chain smokers, whose addiction filled me with abiding disgust for smoking), I would hit the bottle from time to time, I used to come back home tipsy, yet in my lifetime I have not got hammered more than five times and never I had I drunk so much that I could not remember what I had been doing; I have never let the alcohol turn my stomach. Plus I was a “frugal” child – I did not need private tuition (korepetycje), I did not demand from my parents that they bought me some stuff others had.

Yet my colleagues, who patiently put up with their children, point out it is better if teenagers get through a period a defiance before they grow adult, because this has to come sooner or later, and the later it comes, the higher the magnitude of cheekiness is and the more severe outcomes of stupid decisions might be. I suppose the belated adolescence crisis has hit me recently. I am putting it down to changes that have taken place over the last year around me. The transition from school-oriented to work-oriented life, drifting apart with my schoolmates and hitting it off with older, more mature people, gaining the long-awaited financial independence; all these factors have been a source of joy and excitement, but to some extent they turned my life upside down, I am not a man I used to be a year ago. To put if briefly – I sometimes feel as if I was living someone else’s life… Some changes are positive – at work I can spread my wings. I left behind the unpleasant experience of being one of hundreds of anonymous students, which used to hurt during the years spent at SGH. I realise this might be an illusion, but where I work at least I am recognised and my accomplishments are appreciated (one day someone might recall my name and put it on a redundancy list – would it pay off not to stand out and keep a low profile?). Some changes, i.e. aforementioned tangle in my head, are a bit disturbing. When making up for the time wasted on being an obedient child, I hold off on taking stupid, emotion-rather-than-consideration-driven decision and wait. I believe by the 25th birthday it should pass…

To the one who debunked the myth

I am dedicating this post to Michael Wolf, who served as Deputy Head of International Corporates at BRE Bank until late 2009.

If this posting is to prove something, it surely bears evidence that I’m a master of procrastination. Actually in everyday life I don’t tend to hang back on doing things I’m supposed to do, but this time broaching the topic of teaching foreign languages at SGH was put back and back. I hatched the idea of writing this post on 30 April 2009, so almost two years and three months ago. The only drawback of such delay is that I can’t remember as good as I would like to the event of that day. The overall picture of the issue remains unchanged, or, if it did change, things could have gone only worse.

And 30 April 2009 was the day when a conference on impact of economic crisis on German economy was held. The organiser of the event was one of student organisations focusing on economies of German-speaking countries (Studenckie Koło Naukowe Gospodarek Krajów Niemieckojęzycznych, not to grapple with the translation), so the debate was held in German. In the first part of the discussion participants had a 50-minutes long conversation on the main issue of the debate. Later students, till then being only audience to the discussion, were encouraged by moderators to ask questions. A few students pluck up courage and somehow strung together some questions in German. After one student particularly struggled to put his question into words, Mr Wolf decided to put us out of misery and offered in impeccable Polish that if we wished, we could ask questions in Polish, the he’d interpret them into German, reply in German, and once again in Polish. Thus he dealt a blow to everyone (students, teacher, organisers). The debate was meant to show students of Warsaw School of Economics can speak German and students… buggered up. In the meantime a German chap who just spent a few years in Poland brought a shame on them by showing off his fluency in Polish. But this is not the case, the case is that SGH for years has been famous for high level of teaching foreign languages. But has it deserved it.

In times of socialism, Warsaw School of Planning and Statistics (former name of SGH) was one of sparse places and the only one other than linguistics faculties, where students could learn foreign languages on a decent level. I don’t know how to define what a “decent level” is, but in a country where very few people knew foreign languages, good communication skills could be hailed as “proficiency”. Probably the bar wasn’t raised really high, and up till now no one bothered to improve the level of teaching.

The biggest myth about SGH was that it was a place where you could learn German. It was not just the opportunity to learn for free, but the whole thing was about being systemically forced to pull all-nighters to learn that language. After finishing a three-year course in German there I came to two conclusions:
1) much depends on a level of German newly admitted students stand for – many of them have a poor command of the language, so they have to work hard to catch up with the level of teaching,
2) with time, as linguistic skills of admitted students were declining, the school compromised and brought down the level of teaching. Lower entrance level meant later students would leave on a lower level.

According to curriculum, graduates of Bachelor’s studies should have a command of their first language (usually English, in my case as well) on C1 level and of their second language (usually German, in my case as well) also on C1 level. Entrance levels were set at B2 for 1st language and B1 for 2nd language. In fact my English was indeed somewhere around there, but thanks to my own work, not what I learnt at school, my German was at B2 level. The year I finished BA studies only some two or three groups were marked ‘C1’, the rest left with ‘B2’, ‘B1’, or only ‘A2’. Some students recruited in 2006 could not speak German at all. This was a consequence of flawed admission policy which allowed students who hadn’t taken Matura in German to get in.

While German is said to get the sleep off students’ eyes, English is said to be a piece of cake. For me, after the first year, the level was not ‘challenging’. During first two years I had classes with a woman who at first wanted to keep a high level, but then she loosened up. Second year was particularly not the time I could learn English intensively at school. In fifth semester I had a great teacher and I can sincerely declare I owe her a lot. I learnt a lot and in January 2009 I took my Bachelor’s exam in English. I passed it with the highest grade without lifting my little linger, which means the level was far too low! Then I had one term break in learning, when I took a CPE course in a private school. The base-case level of teaching met my expectations, but actual level was adjusted to the group, what eventually let me down… Then I decided I would never sign up for English classes at a language school. On Master’s studies I was assigned to a group run by a freaky and surely unhappy feminist. The level of her English was horrible and she gloated over other people’s command of English, which was really decent, yet far cry from proficiency. I could stand it for only one semester and put in an application for transfer to another group, run the teacher I had had classes with during the fifth semester and thank God had it approved. In the meantime I (claim to have) made a stride in English and classes with her were satisfying, but not challenging. Master’s exam was again a piece of cake, even with its allegedly worst, ‘Polish to English ad hoc translation’ part.

Learning German didn’t run that smoothly. During the first semester students were assigned to the groups according to their surnames. This means in each group there were people who barely spoke German and people fluent in it. After a fortnight authorities of SGH’s language teaching centre changed their mind and divided groups on the basis of level of students’ advancement in the language. Randomly, I came to a group taught by one of most lenient teachers at the whole school. Over six semesters, out of which during one my group was run by a stand-in (our teacher went for a sickie), I learnt some German, but mostly because I wanted to, not because systemic factors compelled me to.

In the case of German how much you learn depends on your teacher. This is a general principle, because I know people whose teachers were much more demanding and their German wasn’t better than mine. In the case of English students generally rest on laurels…

If I can advise anything (I’m talking to a brick wall, with no hopes for being heard), SGH’s authorities should:
1) not compromise even if students’ command of languages at entrance tests proves lower and lower – if students are poor they need to work harder to catch up or not go to SGH at all,
2) not cut down on number of course hours – I know teaching does cost money, but reducing learning hours by 40% over the whole course of studies will not impinge positively on grauduates’ profiles,
3) increase level of teaching English – a high school leaver should be on at least ‘upper-intermediate’ level and should be capable of reaching the provable fluency in general and business English.

English is an essential tool for almost every graduate of my school who wants to make a real career. And gone are the times when communicative English was fairly enough. At least once a week I have to read drivel written by the Poles who claim their English is at least ‘advanced’. Sometimes I make out that an author of such drivel had in mind, because I’m a Pole, sometimes I can’t because it’s too convoluted. The matter is now not about just getting by, but primarily on quality, so getting ahead.

I use English virtually every day at work, but lost touch with German at all. There were some odd situations when I had to exchange a few sentences in that language or read something, but these happened seldom. I’ve never felt a real incentive to learn German, as even in German corporations an official language is English and well-educated Germans speak English far, far better than well-educated Poles, so why bother? But recently my boss examined by German skills. I don’t know to what end, but it could be worth to think over the idea of brushing up on German…

Absolwent SGH

I think my second academic degree obtained in the time of running this blog is not a reason to rename the address of the blog, nor to change the nickname which is quite widely recognised in the Polish-English blogosphere.

The Master's exam I somehow passed today didn't go as smoothly as the Bachelor's exam. Many think such exam is just a formality that marks the end of one studies, at Warsaw School of Economics it's not a piece of cake, but on other hand something doable and not worth the whole stress that plagues would-be graduates. The Polish word obrona, literally "defence", fits quite well the character of the exam, sometimes you have you to prove you deserve the title of MA.

This time, unlike in 2009 I didn't buy and flowers, chocolates, nor any other gifts for the examiners. After all they do the job they are paid for and don't do me any favour that they come. The supervisor of my MA thesis turned up at proverbial "eleventh hour" (three minutes before the exam) and dashed off just after the result was announced, as he hurried to go back to work, the reviewer of the thesis didn't show up at all, but sent a stand-in who didn't even bother to stir up any problems. And the examiner in economics, despite being hailed as "the nitpicker" was surprisingly lenient.

So... If you happen to drop in on the McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Marszałkowska and Świętokrzyska for a portion of french fries, please place your order cordially:

Szanowny panie magistrze, poproszę frytki

Student SGH vs. omnipotent bureaucracy – three short stories.

All presented in a bit weird way – as timelines…

Case 1 – Master’s thesis

September 2009 – I took a decision to complete all courses on Master’s studies within three semesters, rather than within four, as it is was set out in curriculum of studies.

July 2010 – To achieve the goal I began writing my Master’s thesis, with a view to submit it as early as possible and part company with my ignoble school.

12 October 2010 – I submitted a Master’s seminar application in the student office (dziekanat). I had a choice either to take two seminars in one semester (technically feasible) or do the first part of the seminar over the third semester and the second over the fourth semester. I opted for the latter to give myself a safety buffer in case I couldn’t make it in the allotted time, having in mind that it would put back a date of my Master’s exam.

5 January 2011 – I made it. Master’s thesis was prepared and approved by the supervisor.

16 February 2011 – I visited the student office to submit the Master’s seminar application for the second semester. Rules and regulations of studying clearly stipulate a student is obliged to do this within first two weeks of each semester. Despite this I was rebuffed and told not to show up there before I got the credit for the previous semester… Procedures clashed with the overwhelming system…

11 March 2011 – Having logged in to my account in SGH’s IT system I found out I had become a fourth semester student…

16 March 2011 – I finally submitted the hapless application, but was instructed not to put my thesis through an anti-plagiarism system, as, according to student office worker, the system was not ready to deal with theses uploaded by last semester student. I was also told to do this next week. Slightly bemused I postponed the process of checking if I wasn’t a copycat.

23 March 2011 – Same old story. Again I was ordered to wait for one more week.

30 March 2011 – I couldn’t leave the office earlier, so around midday I simply called the student office. I talked with another worker who told me I had been misinformed and the system had always been operational. Delay was then two weeks (or six weeks, if I was to count in the delay in accepting Master’s seminar applications)

31 April 2011 – I waded through all regulations concerning submitting Master’s thesis. One of quite bizarre ones was that it was not the student whose duty was to submit the thesis and several attachments by the supervisor in the flesh. I contacted the supervisor and asked him when he could go with me to the student office and handle all formalities. The only possible date was next Monday, around midday.

1 April 2011 – I took a day off at work (tapping my paid holidays) to wrangle with my beloved school.

2 April 2011 – I put the thesis through anti-plagiarism system, printed out the thesis and dozens of attachments, had my thesis bound, arranged a meeting with my supervisor.

4 April 2011 – I went to my supervisor’s work, where he were supposed to meet, unfortunately he couldn’t go out of the office, so he signed all documents and wrote at the back of an envelope a power of attorney for me to submit the thesis and attachments on his behalf. He pointed out the requirement that the supervisor was to do the job was virtually dead. Half an hour later, at school, he was proved wrong. The school followed all procedures… The whole day went down the drain.

13 April 2011 – My supervisor and I finally made it to the student office together and submitted the thesis and all documents. A student office worker, the one who had misinformed me, refused to confirm the receipt of the thesis and attachments and told us not to change workings of her always perfect office. I was also rebuked for reproaching the office over being open only three hours a day in hours inconvenient for working students – I was told to choose either to work and study on weekends or to quit the job and study in day-time mode.

Since then I have received credit for my Master’s seminar and my thesis has been handed over to a reviewer. According to the regulations, he has one month to review the thesis. If he doesn’t he won’t be penalised in any way. And this is the worst – for such misconduct or neglect of duties people should be fined. A fine of 1,000 PLN would make them meet deadlines… Of course now I don’t know when the reviewed thesis will be returned to student office and when the date of final exam will be set, but somehow I don’t hope for the best…

Cases 2 – Driving licence

9 May 2006 – My first medical check-up. A doctor came to a driving school, charged 100 PLN, asked if I was healthy and checked my eyesight. My glasses then weren’t powerful enough and I was prescribed a temporary driving licence, valid five years.

January 2011 – my driving licence was to expire on 9 May 2011 so I took first steps to find out what to do to have it prolonged. I had to do a medical check-up and obtain a doctor’s certificate with no counter-indications for driving. In a health centre I was told to wait until I got a health-care package from my employer to bring down the costs…

14 April 2011 – a real struggle began. I made several call to several health centres. In each I was told to do a different check-up, to visit different doctors, some even wanted to send me to a psychiatrist. I tried to do the whole thing at work and one colleague from different department, who overheard to whole conversation (another ‘advantage’ of open plans) told me to go to a doctor from a chain of health centres at which my bank purchased packages for employees. She said that doctor did the whole job even in transport department of my gmina, so what she said sounded like rubbish. Eventually, after find it out which examination I needed to have done, I was left with the choice either to go to a private health centre 500 metres near my house or to have the check-up in Warsaw. In both centres prices were prohibitive and nothing was included in my package. The case was, however, that according to new transport law I had to have level of glucose in my blood checked and this had to be done on empty stomach. The health centre in Warsaw did it only in the afternoon, so I plumped for early hours on Thursday, 21 April and took another paid day off.

21 April 2011 – I reported to the nearby health centre. On the door I saw the sticker advertising medical services provided in partnership with the chain of health centres I have my health care package with. To my surprise two out of three check-ups were covered by my employer and I only had to pay 70 PLN instead of 149 PLN. One nice surprise. I had my driving licence prolonged by ten years. In the transport department things went on quite smoothly, after queuing up for some forty minutes. After forking out 154 PLN and tapping a day off I wait for a new driving licence, which I won’t probably pick up before my old one expires, but this is really a minor issue.

Case 3 – Cyfrowy Polsat (this one dedicated to Scatts)

1 October 2009 – after terminating the contract on Neostrada we bought a subscription to Play Online Mobile Internet and wished it delivered a better service than Tepsa…

2010 – Play Online sucked… Couldn’t wait to the end of the contract. They declared the maximum connection speed would be 1 Mbps. Actual speed reached in peak hours around 60 kbps, as much as on my first dial-up modem in 2001…

March 2011 – I researched mobile operators’ mobile internet offers. I ruled out Play out of hand, then what three main mobile operators offered didn’t seem interesting and in the light of the fact their networks were already congested even off-putting. Once I found a leaflet advertising Cyfrowy Polsat, checked their page in the internet and settled on their plan 3 GB + 9 GB for 50 PLN. I told about it my parents and my father, after he heard the name of our new provider, immediately hatched the idea of buying the internet connection bundled with satellite television.

2 April 2011 – my father and I set off to the nearest shop of Cyfrowy Polsat in Piaseczno. It was supposed to be open on Saturday from 9:00 am. We arrived there at five past nine and it was closed. We hung around for 40 minutes and the owner failed to turn up. I called CP’s customer service and heard they couldn’t help it as this was an outlet run under franchise contract and the closure was its owner’s business… Back home I found the old leaflet which contained the number of CP’s sales representative. He agreed to visit us at home and came around some two hours later. A man in his 50’s seemed to have had problems finding a better job and was forced to foist CP upon people. Clunky but honest, he didn’t persuade us to buy a mobile phone with CP, nor to order extra TV packages. Having acquainted with offer we plumped for internet + sat TV bundle and placed an order. The rep was to hand over the order to a technician who would be supposed to contact us and deliver a satellite dish, a decoder and internet devices.

14 April 2011 – till then nobody got in touch with us. My father called the rep, who said he had forgotten about the order, but promised to mend his ways.

15 April 2011 – the technician called and said he would turn up with equipment and contracts the other day. He told us to wait all day long for him because he didn’t knew when he would be able to come…

16 April 2011 – a quarter before nine the technician called to let us know he would be in ten minutes. My father told firmly the technician and his assistant would start installing the dish only after he finished reading the contract. Ten minutes upon their arrival technician were drilling holes in the wall of our house and my father handed me the contract and attachments to read it, as he didn’t… The contract included two factual errors (wrong prices), three understatements and lacked all attachments. I called the customer service of CP, learnt they have three lines, one for TV subscribers, one for internet and mobile phone subscribers and one for potential clients. Having talked to seven consultants after forty minutes I established I was right to have deemed the contract flawed. In the meantime the technician mistook the cardinal points and drilled four holes in the western wall of our house, which turned out not to be the southern wall. The holes remained but Mr technician did not give up and decided to fix the satellite dish to the existing aerial mast with terrestrial TV and radio aerials. He accidentally dismantled my FM aerial which provided excellent signal to my Hi-fi system, my father didn’t bother because the thought this aerial was totally superfluous. Finally we ended up with not signed contracts, satellite dish hung and wires attached to the outer wall and pulled into the drawing room. An hour after the technician left wires came off the wall. The rest of the day was spent on fixing the wire back to the wall and laying it under baseboards in the drawing room.

21 April 2011 – they came again, installed everything and now it even works.

Internet connection, compared to Play Online works like a miracle, TV is OK, hope further dealings with customer service will not be a pain in the neck…

'Business school' versus 'School of economics'

In practice, I have actually parted company with my school, although in theory I'll do it when I pass my Master's exam. Formally I'm still a student, and both as a student and as a would-be graduate (a diploma from the Warsaw School of Economics is a recognised 'brand') I should be interested in the strategy of WSE (PL: SGH), thus the direction in which it is drifting.

Recent years have brought significant changes in the workings of my university. Most of them have been brought about by an obligation to implement the so-called Bologna system. The biggest revolution to take place under the new system was the shift towards two-tier studies. Each student now has to no choice, but to take a three-year BA course and then, if they wish to continue their education, a two-year MA course. This has replaced the previous cycle of five-year MA studies, which left the decision to take a Bachelor's exam at students' discretion. The shift necessitated changes in the curricula. In the old system studies lasted five years, now they last three plus two years. This indeed equates to five, but the new system lacks continuity, as studies have to be split into two separate cycles and new curricula for each cycle have had to be drawn up.

Proponents of the shift (not those from Poland, but EU officials and scholars) pointed out the Bologna system would bring benefits to students. As it now transpires, its introduction was to the benefit of the overwhelming, problem-piling-up bureaucractic machinery and students are not key beneficiaries of the Bologna system. Since the introduction of the new system in 2006, when I began my studies, SGH has pressed on with two curriculum reforms. Both have come in for harsh criticism for cutting down on number of course hours allocated for "core" courses (intermediate macro- and microeconomics, advanced economics, statistics, econometrics, mathematics) and "not strictly economic" courses (sociology, economic history). The most ardent opponents of the reshaped curricula even cried out against SGH turning into a "vocational school" and retaining the word "economics" in its English name only.

In the West we have two different types of universities:
1) business schools,
2) schools of economics.
And they must not be mistaken for each other!

Let's look at the top bar at "The Economist's" main page.

This is not a coincidence that 'economics' and 'business' have separate sections.

The difference between the two is quite simple. Economics is about understanding people's and companies' behaviours on the marketplace and functioning of economies and it is a social science. Business in turn is simply about making money. The two are strongly tied-up with each other, yet the latter is just a part of the former.

This assertion leads us to another conclusion. It takes much more to educate a good economist than a good businessman. In fact a 'vocational school' would suffice to churn out graduates who would pursue their careers in 'business'. They should have all competencies and skills that would allow them to generate money for their corporations and, consequently, for themselves. A graduate of a business school can work in a consultancy firm, as accountant, auditor, product manager, at a bank, they can successfully run a company. In many of the jobs listed above they would outperform graduates of economics, but think about a business school graduate analysing financial markets, working in a central bank (remember the former president of Polish central bank, ridiculed for his diploma from an 'inferior US business school'?), as an economist at a bank or drafting a pension system reform. All those tasks require a graduate of economics, equipped not only with essential knowledge, but also taught to understand all complex phenomena that take place in the economy, taught to analyse and track causations and, above all, able to shape their own opinions independently. In the context of independence the word 'business' has to be stressed. Being in business involves money-related tie-ups and conflicts of interests that jeopardise an economist's independence. But bear in mind that only business, but also politics might pose a threat to an economist's independence.

Nevertheless, the education of an economist needs to be much broader that the one of a business school student. Courses such as sociology, economics of development, economic history, economic policy have to be run and taken by students. Being an economist requires broader horizons and open mind. The style of teaching should differ. Students of economics should be encouraged to discuss; during such discussions various opinions should clash, substantive arguments backed by examples and calculations should be traded. Analytical skills should be developed, students should be taught to discern possible impacts of some factors on other ones. A few useful rules should be instilled, such as recently quoted one that in economics you can prove a theory if you can't disprove it. And a grasp of psychology is essential when analysing the mechanics of economies and financial markets! Business students, in turn, can crack case studies, learn how to manage people, run companies, foist stuff upon customers and develop other skills requisite for making money.

I don't wish to denigrate students and graduates of business schools. They're just a different breed and are not cut out for some jobs. As a rich man I would not hesitate to take on a business graduate to run my company (but remember the currency-option botch-up from early 2009), but they would not be allowed to manage my personal finances.

And having said that I can't stress strongly enough there is no clear dividing line between business and economics. At my job I am somewhere in between; I try to make the most of my knowledge in economics, but the job has a tilt at the 'business', which means my career path might have to be reassessed...

Coming back to the issue of SGH, I'd like them to settle on 'school of economics' model. Maybe this is not what the market, ruled by money, needs most, but this what next generations will surely need. Moreover, 'business school' means taking a path of least resistance, while SGH with at least some of its excellent staff, is capable of aiming much higher. May it stay the Warsaw School of Economics, not in name only!

Transition

Hard to put it into words what I feel in one of turning points of my life. I suppose I would even have problems defining my emotions, and, disturbingly, they are rather sparse, though they should not.

On Wednesdat I took my last exam at SGH, to be precise this was the penultimate exam, since I still have to take my Master's exam, due... probably in late spring, bereaucracy permitting. My last two exams taken this week were both rough rides, however I hope for the best and contend that I will have gone through my studies without a single re-sit.

On Monday I start my first permanent job (formally I will have a three-month probationary period and then, if both parties agree, will it be a permanent job). This does not actually mean delving into a totally different world. I have had two encounters with the corporate world before and I cannot confess to feel anything like a "stage-fright", but I do feel a bit self-concious though.

The transition might be the right moment for some summaries. To put it possibly briefly, I have drawn up two lists of things I will miss and I will not miss after parting with SGH.

I WILL MISS:

1. Day-to-day contact with peers. Truth be told my colleagues will be a bit or much older than me. From my past experience I know I can get along with older colleagues very well, but they are a sort of a different breed, they have different problems, pastime activities, interests, priorities in life, usually they have a different point of view because they have their own families and obligations it entails.

2. Clever, awe-inspiring lecturers, just to name a few:
dr Bogusław Czarny, who taught me basic micro- and macroeconomics, inspired to think independently, form my own opinions and who stressed the importance of the overriding rule in economics, that an assertion is true when it cannot be disproved, not when it can be proved,
prof. Marek Garbicz, for his breathtaking lectures, sense of humour and open mind,
prof. Maria Podgórska, for her patience, consistency and the fact she did not confine just to teach econometrics and mathematics in finance and insurance, but also wanted to instil in us integrity and made us aware how important in life it was,
mgr Sławomira Rajkowska, my best German teacher ever, unfortunately she stood in for our lecturer just for one term, but the progress I made (without much effort) was unbelievable. Had my Deutsch been that good today...
mgr Aneta Piwko, my best English teacher ever. If all teachers had such excellent command of English, passion and drive to teach, Germans would not stack up against Poles in terms of English skills.
prof. Sławiński... Here words are very unnecessary. Who experienced the pleasure of attending his lectures knows what I mean. The rest may only regret.
dr Piotr Mielus, the supervisor of my MA thesis and an outstanding practitioner.

3. Casual clothes. From next week will fit for weekends, holidays and cult dress-down Fridays. I actually like formal outfits so this one should be taken with a pinch of salt.

4. Commuting in non-peak hours. Lovely it was to get from or to Warsaw within fifty minutes in the middle of the day or in the evening when streets were already unclogged. My new recipe for avoiding traffic jams will be trains, so the journey between home and the office should take around an hour.

5. Job fairs, event, meeting famous people who visited SGH and other events. First two and a half years abounded in such events. Later the crisis came, companies cut their promotion budgets and I ran out of disposable pens.

6. Privileges. Not that soon. I will pick up my diploma some three months after the final MA exam, so I until then will I make the most of my ticket concession and other measurable benefits of being a student. The new world will compensate me for this by giving perks.

7. Unfettered speculation on stock exchange. From now I will not be able to do a real-time trading plus I will have several trading restrictions. This does not mean I will pull back from the stock market at all; the speculator will become a mid-term investor.

I WILL NOT MISS:

1. The overwhelming mess, bad communication between authorities and students and general disinformation.

2. Ignorance and laziness of lecturers. I do not even wish to comment. The list of admired lecturers was short. The list of big let-downs from the whole course of my studies would be much longer...

3. Workings of the student office (dziekanat), its surly personnel, quiant decisions (deleting completed courses from track record of studies, informing me about my Bachelor's exam the day before in the evening)...

4. To boot bad organisation, doing everything at eleventh hour...

5. Appaling use of English, which was ridiculed on this blog repeatedly.

6. Broken down central heating when outside it was -15C or unopenable windows and lack of curtains or blinds when outside temperature hit +30C

7. Lectures at 19:00 for day-time students (prevalent, alas).

Immersing in the corporate world will not only mean I will be self-supporting, but also will bring new challenges and real learning opportunities. In the coming months I expect to work harder and learn more than within four and a half years of my studies.

Hitherto I have not observed any sympthoms of depresja magisterska, (graduates afflicted with this malady are down in the dumps because the carefree period of studies is drawing to a close and they are in for forty years of work), but the worst might be still to come.

The last thing I can mention is the higher education system reform passed yesterday by the lower house of the Polish parliament. The new law is intended to curb two pathologies that plague Polish universities. Firstly, it imposes limits on number of jobs scholars can take. Secondly, it introduces tuition fees for students who take their second studies. From what I have observed, both steps will do Polish universities only good. At least in this respect the current government can be credited with a good job.

Who couldn’t care less...

Apologies for not posting last weekend. The profound reason for that negligence was coming down with some undiagnosed illness. It came to me as a surprise. The last time I had been ill in March 2001 and from then on I managed to forget how to feels to have fever or sore throat. Luckily, I’ve almost recuperated (still suffering from some irksome irritation in the throat), so it’s time to catch up…

Prior to coming down with no one knows what, I finally saw the (in)famous public debt meter installed in the very hub of Warsaw. I took the photo to the right on 13 October, so the outstanding debt of the Polish state has risen within ten days by probably some few hundred million PLN. “It’s not the matter how much you owe, the point is how much you earn”, some economist argue. Indeed if you earn one million PLN a year and have to repay a loan of 100,000 PLN you are better off than an unemployed couple with five children who can’t make ends meet and have 1,000 PLN to repay. When it comes to a state an indicator of relative indebtness is debt-to-GDP ratio. In Poland it runs at around 54%. Is it a lot? Japan’s debt has almost reached 200% of its GDP, the country’s economy is stagnating, but nothing heralds an imminent collapse of Japanese public finances. Greek debt-to-GDP ration exceeds 110% and in May 2010 Greece faced serious problems rolling over it. At the same time the same ratio in Italy was five percentage points higher, but financial markets perceived default of Greece as much more probable than Italy’s. In United States public debt accounts for around 80% of its gross domestic product and US bonds are still rated AAA. German public debt has reached record-high levels, but yields on German bonds are the lowest in the history (what makes borrowing very cheap for German taxpayers). Is there any logic in it?

So is 54% a lot? Much depends not only on how much revenues the state collects, but also on how much it spends structure the spending. In Poland rigid government expenses determine the growth of public debt.

Is 54% a reason to worry? Thousands of people pass the display with the meter by every day and they don’t care. Who’s going to pay it off? They? Their children? The state? If the state then who? Who is the state? The prime minister Tusk? The finance minister Rostowski? Do they realise majority of them are Polish state’s creditors? Most of them obligatorily put aside money in pension funds, which are obliged to hold at least 60% of their portfolio in Polish gilts. Some of them put their savings into bond funds (which hold mostly government bonds), some buy government bonds directly. Have they ever thought Polish state could one day go default? Do they realise interest they earn is nothing else but taxes paid by their relatives, friends, neighbours and by… themselves?

Does the government care about the meter? They say in comparison to other, wealthier states, our relative indebtness is negligible and there is no reason to worry. If the European Commission gives consent for not counting government bonds bought by pension funds into public debt, our debt-to-GDP ratio will plunge by around ten percentage points. I dread to see the complacency of minister Rostowski’s face when this creative-accounting decision is passed.

Does the opposition care about the meter? No, they have other stuff to gripe about. Besides, the thoughtless economic policy PiS-led government pursued when they were in power only exacerbated out debt problem. When the economy was thriving, instead of amassing a budget surplus, not only did they fail to reduce the public debt, but they cut revenues and raised spending. Thanks to that pro-cyclical move we are where we are and we wasted the chance to carry through some unpopular reforms when their negative effects could have been mitigated. Minister Rostowski was right to say someone from PiS should apologise to Poles for what their misconduct.

And ordinary people don’t care even if they see the “debt per capita”. Every Pole, including infants, disabled, pupils, senile old men owes 19,267 PLN. Whom do they owe? Partly themselves (individual bondholders), partly banks and investment funds from Poland and abroad. What if there was an initiative to crack down on the problem, chip in and pay it all off? I would join it. I would fork out 19,267 PLN of my savings if it could only help solve the problem. But let’s face it, the idea is completely unfeasible. Many Poles don’t even have so much money put aside, the stats include millions of people who don’t earn any money because they can’t. Most people wouldn’t agree to chip in and pay off our debts. Debts can’t be paid right away because bond holders wouldn’t agree to be paid off before bonds mature. Money would have to be collected and invested somehow, the whole process of paying off would last decades. And finally this one-off move wouldn’t solve structural problems, the debt spiral would just start over, after a few years with no incentives to cut spending the problem would relapse.

I wonder how financial markets would react to the decision of Polish government not to refinance its debt. In practice it wouldn’t be a decision not to issue new bonds, but the bonds would be issued on terms set by the government. It would be them who would beg us for issuing bonds, not us begging them to finance our debt. Interesting!

This burning issue could be addressed by some academics from my school, but I don’t believe it will ever happen. Students are believed to be have in innate tendency to bunk off, but from what I’ve noticed that affliction is rubbing off on lecturers. The fact that students are lazy is commonly known, but the fact scholars are lazy and don’t even bother to pretend they aren’t becomes embarrassing. I observe how laziness and ignorance are becoming a virtue. This is how the Polish higher education system is going downhill. Students want to put as little effort as possible and lecturers simply play along with them, because they find it convenient. Soon no classes will be held, students won’t have to attend them, lecturers will be paid anyway, in the exam period easy exams on which everyone cheats will be held. Happy students will get their diplomas, a bunch of wankers will get paid and thus will also be happy, nobody will get tired and that’s the point!

Within last two weeks I found out that:
1. If a lecture starts ten minutes later, it is a sufficient reason to finish it ten minutes earlier and have a fifteen minutes long break. Ninety minutes shrink to sixty five. And everyone is happy.
2. The blue chip index of Paris Stock Exchange is CACK 40. And Mr Lecturer thought it very clever of him to hit students with such an English-language joke.
3. And last but not least during the workshop I found out I even can’t lie so I don’t deserve to be called a student. („pan oszukiwać nie umie, co z pana za student?”)

I’ve felt like a sucker many times in life, given that I’m generally straightforward this feeling will be haunting me, but this time it wasn’t just an insult to me (I couldn’t be even assertive enough to respond to it without striking back), but it bore testimony to what set of values is instilled in students. Appalling. And, to make it worse, no one will stand up to it!

Alright, the school is bringing me down, but I’ve got just three months left there. And what after I graduate? I should look out for a job…

It’s not an easy task, some people have more luck than others. For instance, this year’s graduate, daughter of current finance minister, aged 23, was fixed up with a cushy job in Polish Foreign Ministry. According to the Ministry’s spokesman, previous translators did their job poorly and minister Sikorski was dissatisfied with them (here I do believe it, after seeing korpus dyplomatyczny translated as “diplomatic corpse” and dziękujemy za gościnność as “we thank for your hostility” I know anything’s possible) and decided to fire them and take on his fellow minister’s daughter. Since then, all minister’s speeches and official writings have been edited by Ms Rostowska who ensures they are all written in impeccable English.

Ms Rostowska is not well-known public figure, so journalist paid by hostile media had to go an extra mile to find any photo of her. The only one they procured was her profile picture from facebook (right) which proves her impeccable credentials, high qualifications and fondness for modern art. This photo disappeared from all main news sites after Ms Rostowska filed several request to remove it and now it can be found on some niche sites only. For no apparent reason the news item also has been removed from most main sites, but what has once been put into Internet will remain there forever and info about Ms Rostowska career circulates around the Net.

I screwed it all up and can’t boast about no prior experience as Mr Rostowska (if she hadn’t worked during her studies, what they hell do they do in England?), but if it happens that I have to look for a job next year, I’ll have to set a new photo as a profile picture on facebook. In the foreground: me, wielding a bottle of plonk, in the background, a board saying “I feel like shagging a young piece of arse” (mam ochotę przelecieć jakąś młodą dupę). Will it boost my chances on labour market? If a recruiter from the company I worked for this summer had found my blog (I try to keep it rather anonymous, but I didn’t do so at the beginning), would it make a problem to find my profile on facebook?

Yes, I admit, I am nasty and malicious, but that’s the way of coping with absurdities.

Next week I’ll post a book review – will be nicer!